in returns, part one

Four days before Lost Highway labelmate Ryan Adams makes his Raleigh return, Tift Merritt headlines her biggest Triangle show yet, taking to the North Carolina Museum of Art's Bryan Amphitheatre on the strength of last year's lauded and Grammy-nominated Tambourine. She'll kick off the 2005 concert season there in style, too, as one of the best guitarists in the world, Cool John Ferguson, opens. John Dee Holeman, a Music Maker fellow with the Piedmont's beyond-authentic blues bellow, is also on the bill. Tickets are $10, and kids ages 12 and under get in free. The music starts at 8 p.m.